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\f0\b\fs24 \cf0 Obama\'92s Trip to Florida Everglades Is a Shrewd Move in Climate Debate
\b0 \
by Chris Mooney\
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\cf0 April 20, 2015 \'96 It may not be as\'a0obvious a climate symbol as the rapidly warming Arctic. But with President\'a0Obama\'92s climate-focused visit on Earth Day, Everglades National Park\'a0could take on new significance as a politically potent case study of how global warming directly impacts\'a0people living in the United States.\
The chief reason? In the Everglades, the fate of an ecosystem, and the fate of millions of people, are tightly wrapped together \'97\'a0and both are affected by rising seas.\
Everglades\'a0National Park is an ecological icon because of its\'a0liminal\'a0nature\'a0\'97 its 1.5 million acres lie perched between fresh and saltier water, between marsh and ocean. The unique\'a0region was \'a0famously dubbed\'a0a \'93river of grass.\'94 It supports vast biological diversity \'97 mangrove forests, sawgrass prairie,\'a0and much more. Moreover, it does this even in the damaged and dramatically shrunken state in which humans have currently left it, by diverting much of its historic waters.\
But the Everglades is not just a place to see alligators, crocodiles and manatees. People rely on it, too. The vast water system that feeds the Everglades also helps to fill and refill the Biscayne aquifer, a gigantic underground supply of freshwater, upon which southeast Florida\'92s human residents\'a0rely.\
\'93The Everglades as a natural system, and the coastal area as a human system, are really interdependent,\'94 said\'a0Len Berry, former head of the Florida Center for Environmental Studies at Florida Atlantic University and now an emeritus professor there. \'93Folks that live here don\'92t always realize it, but we are dependent on the Everglades as a retainer of water, and a filter of water.\'94\
\'93I can be an environmentalist and say we\'92ve got to save the Everglades, I can also be a practical developer and say we\'92ve got to save the Everglades, because it\'92s of practical use to us,\'94 Berry said.\
Some people in Florida are already experiencing water supplies\'a0spoiled with salt water. Hallandale Beach, for instance,\'a0had \'93abandoned 6 of its 8 drinking water wells, because saltwater has advanced underground across 2/3 of the city,\'94 the
\i Miami Herald
\i0 reported in 2011. With further saltwater intrusion, more Floridians could experience the same problem.\
The dependence on the Everglades can only increase as Florida\'92s population booms \'97 it just\'a0surpassed New York\'a0to become the 3rd most populous\'a0state in the country, approaching 20 million people, with an additional\'a05 million or more expected by 2040.\
Thus, by visiting the Everglades, Obama may be able to land\'a0a shrewd political strike and shift the climate debate more to a clear and present home front.\'a0\'a0That\'92s particularly pertinent in an ever-more-important swing state that has produced\'a02 potential 2016 GOP presidential contenders \'97\'a0Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush. Both of them are going to have to answer a lot of climate change questions in the coming year, focused on their own back yard.\
When it comes to climate change and the Everglades, the issue is not so much rising temperatures \'97\'a0although those matter \'97\'a0as it is the way that\'a0rising seas will push into the ecosystem, not only imperiling unique wildlife but also potentially spoiling freshwater supplies.\
The reason is what Florida International University ecologist Evelyn Gaiser\'a0calls \'93the Swiss Cheese underpinnings of the Everglades, that is easily encroached by the sea.\'94 The Everglades sit atop a base layer of porous limestone that is easily penetrated by seawater, so that in essence,\'a0the flow of freshwater into the Everglades can be thought of as being in a constant competition with seawater.\
Freshwater is lighter in weight than salt water,\'a0explains\'a0the U.S. Geological Survey, meaning that in the area,\'a0\'93a 41-foot column of freshwater is necessary to balance a 40-foot column of saltwater.\'94 We only see what\'92s at the surface, but these columns mostly abut against one another below it. Humans are, in effect, aiding the saltwater\'92s progress.\
They do so, notes USGS, through changing the landscape \'97\'a0\'93lowering of freshwater levels by drainage canals, or by intensive pumping, creates an imbalance that causes the inland movement of saltwater.\'94 But saltwater intrusion is also driven by global warming and rising seas, a kind of 3rd strike after canals and wells.\
As a result, saltwater pushes into aquifers. \'93As\'a0the average sea level rises, that allows the denser salt water to move in underneath the freshwater,\'94 explained Florida Atlantic University\'92s Len Berry. Basically, it\'92s an \'93advancing front,\'94 Berry said. \'93It\'92s not racing, but it\'92s creeping.\'94\
Or, as a 2010 report from the Florida Oceans and Coastal Council put it: \'93Rising sea level will increase the hydraulic back-pressure on coastal aquifers, reduce groundwater flow toward the ocean, and cause the saltwater front to move inland, thus threatening to contaminate water-supply wells in coastal areas with seawater.\'94\
We are just at the beginning of this potential change. Sea level\'a0in the Florida area\'a0already rose nearly 9 inches during the 20th century. But\'a0projections for the 21st century are vastly higher \'97 it could be as much as 78 inches, according to a 2014 study by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences on the progress of Everglades restoration.\
Throw in warmer temperatures and a potential decline in rainfall, and you\'92ve got \'93insufficient freshwater to sustain the natural and built systems,\'94 the report warns.\
Indeed, with a sea level rise of 30 or so inches, \'93most of Everglades National Park could essentially become an extension of Florida Bay,\'94 warns\'a0an Everglades report by the EPA, National Parks Service and Fish and Wildlife Service.\
The Everglades do have one card to play against rising seas \'97\'a0a mangrove barrier that can rise with them, at least to an extent, as the plants\'92 roots filter saltwater and build up a layer of peat beneath them. But scientists don\'92t know how fast mangroves can rise, and thus, how long the barrier will last. (It is also vulnerable to powerful hurricanes.)\
\'93That\'92s the general paradigm, mangroves will accrete soils at rates that are commensurate with the rate of sea level rise,\'94 said\'a0Florida International University\'92s Gaiser. But as sea level rise continues and at a faster rate, she continues, \'93what we\'92re seeing is that the soils on the other side of the mangroves, on the freshwater marsh, are not similarly accreting, and instead, they\'92re collapsing. And that\'92s completely the opposite of the predictions of what a mangrove forest would do.\'94\
Mangroves are one potential last ditch barrier. But the longstanding Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan aims to engage the battle against salt water from another strategic position \'97 to \'93redirect\'94 some freshwater back to the Everglades that had been diverted from it.\
Thus, in the Everglades, the fight against climate change \'97\'a0and to push back the sea \'97\'a0is being constantly waged with very high stakes.\
This week, we\'92ll hear a lot of climate news. In particular, John Kerry will become yet another major Obama official (after Interior Secretary Sally Jewell) to visit the Arctic. Kerry is traveling to Iqaluit, Canada, as the U.S. takes over chairmanship of the Arctic Council, an 8-nation body that sets the governance regime for the region.\
Climate change in the Arctic has\'a0vast consequences, which stretch far beyond the region itself. But for most of us, the Arctic is very far away. It is \'a0also relatively sparsely\'a0populated \'97 which couldn\'92t be a greater contrast with South Florida, where the consequences of climate change imperil a very large, and very politically diverse, human population.\
Which may explain why it\'92s now becoming central to Obama\'92s climate agenda. Or, as Joe Pogdor, the former head of Friends of the Everglades \'a0put it many years ago: \'93The Everglades is a test. If we pass, we may get to keep the planet.\'94\
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\cf0 www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/04/20/why-obamas-trip-to-the-florida-everglades-is-a-shrewd-move-in-the-climate-debate/\
}